Or Occasionally a Woman

Kodi Saylor

Laurette, I’ve been in the dictionary
again thinking I’m clever.

It started with a word.
It smells like a cathedral drunk on orchids

or the unpaid work of leisure fishermen.
Fishermen, I call on your amateur beards—.

Ignore me. Laurette, I’ve been cataloging.
All foundations of classification haul my belly

into the hierarchy—do you think a hero is
a man or occasionally a woman? Nets

gather the islands in my bedroom, heavy
with sea-girls semi-divine never symbolic

assumptions. My ship makes me a sailor
pressed into a green wind. My performance

of noble actions has been recorded on youtube.
I’ll send you a link— Laurette—how

do we keep our eyes open like oysters
during desk battle on wooden planks

and remain undistinguished by history?
Laurette—how does the dictionary define

hero? Via the body?
Pleasure, bear a woman wanting skill

in battles—someone should ask some questions
when the answer is—or occasionally a woman

Kodi Saylor received her MFA in poetry at New York University where she was a Lillian Vernon Fellow. Her poems have appeared in Lime Hawk and Indianapolis Review. She currently works at Auraria Library in Denver, CO.